Movie Project - Day 34: The Iron Giant

While I had this on my list of war movies, I had decided to do away with any kind of theme for the moment. Little did I know, I forgot to put this DVD away, and Erini found it. Maybe she remembered watching it previously, or maybe it was the giant robot on the front, but she insisted on watching it. How could I refuse?

I first saw this movie back in 2003 when The Incredibles was being hyped all over the internet. Brad Bird was a newcomer to Pixar, but not to animation as I discovered in my research, and it was this movie, The Iron Giant, that got the attention of John Lasseter. After reading this little factoid, I looked up the movie in my in-laws 2001 Movie Hound, and saw the movie had a rating of three and a half bones. The next day I went and bought a copy. I cursed my impatience when I saw the Special Edition a few short months later.

Not that it mattered, because this movie is sheer excellence, and my daughter doesn't care much for special features. At least not right now. Erini was more interested in the giant robot and all the damage he made. I had to make a couple corrections on her comments, such as at the end when the Giant flies off to stop the missile. She said, "He's going back to where he came from." In a way she was right, since he was sacrificing himself to save the town, but I emphasized the heroic action he was doing, not the fact that he was leaving.

Erini is really starting to pick up character emotions and relationships, but she's still a little girl. After the movie I asked her what her favourite part was. Her reply, "When they're watching the movie at school." Why? "Because it was cool when they were flying around with the planes." She mixed up the beginning and the end of the movie. Oops.

Still, I talked with her about those parts and stressed how the Giant chose to do all that he did. While he was flying through the air avoiding the jets and missiles, he threw his hand in front of his eyes to shut down his defensive protocols. When he thought Hogarth was dead, he gave into his anger and let his counter-measures go full scale. After he saw his friend was alright, he regained control and shut down his weapons.

I'm quite sure my daughter isn't going to go on a rampage and overturn military forces with a casual glance, but she's still young and hasn't hit puberty yet. Uh oh. I have a wife and two daughters. About twelve years from now, I'm going to have a house of horrors once a month! Maybe. I'll have to stock up on chocolate now.